The End of the Rainbow
by saunatonttu
Summary: From childhood to the guild's holy land - the relationship between a grandfather and a grandson.


A/N: yeah. I love this relationship. I love Laxus and Makarov an d fuckjdhdd

* * *

_.the End of the Rainbow._

_._

_._

"So, what do you like Fantasia, Laxus?"

Laxus, sitting on his grandpa's shoulders, laughed almost giddily, hands resting on the bald spot of the elder's head. "It's amazing, gramps! I love it!"

Makarov's lips curved up on their own accord, and the warmth only a grandfather could feel filled his heart up there and then; the sound of Laxus's happiness resounded within him, and Makarov wished this boy, this young boy he had the joy of raising, would never lose that laughter.

.

.

"Gramps, do you think I'll ever be a part of this?"

"Of course you will, Laxus."

.

.

"Happy birthday, gramps!" Laxus smiled, bright and innocent, and Makarov almost cried like he almost_ (totally_)had at Laxus's first time participating in Fantasia.

There was simply no resisting the proud and so purely child-happy smile that lit Laxus's up, and Makarov felt a tear ghosting in the corner of his eye.

The present was a simple and rather poorly made music box, but Makarov appreciated it all the same, though he gave a quick look at the bandages on the tips of Laxus's fingers.

"The best one I have had yet," he assured Laxus and lovingly ruffled his grandson's golden hair and noted the smile that was even brighter than the hair.

.

.

At some point, Laxus's smiles had turned nastier – smirks and sneers and lopsided grins that mocked people. Something about it reminded him of Ivan, the father long gone from Laxus's life or so Makarov thought, and the comparison brought worry and grim lines to his face with it.

There was anger and hunger in that boy – two qualities that never mixed well together, and Makarov wished the anger was merely the teenage blues Laxus was going through.

But the more he watched Laxus, the heavier the feeling in his heart got.

.

.

Laxus disappeared from the center of the guild to the outlines of it; the second floor was his kingdom.

As a guild master and a grandfather, Makarov felt concerned, but there was little he could do when Laxus wouldn't listen – or stay in the guild long enough for them to have those conversations.

_Time is trickling away – _

.

.

With Laxus's excommunication came both relief and more gut-wrenching sadness for the boy that had grown up to isolate himself from the family he could have had, but as the guild master, he could not have had done anything else.

So, he pretended that there were no tears, even as Laxus said, "_Take care of yourself."_

.

.

Yet the information from Gajeel made him clench his jaw in regret – _Ivan was after the lacrima inside Laxus._

The secondary emotion, anger, came and replaced regret quickly enough.

_Ivan, you fiend._

.

.

Some time passed – for Laxus, that time was spent traveling not only in Fiore but other countries as well.

The world was a vast place; he learned it, at the very least, when he stood there in front of the second master of Fairy Tail, one knee buckling and hitting the floor.

He smiled, though; he knew what he'd do – even though the anger he felt for Gramps' sake burned at his stomach ember-like, he gave the power to Natsu with easy acceptance as the spell of Hades hovered over his blond head like the harbinger of death.

Laxus smiled as the floor collapsed under the strength of the spell; his body, empty from magic power, took the full force of it just as acceptingly as Laxus took the fact that he shouldn't be the one to finish Hades off.

Even as his consciousness faded for a moment or two from time to time, he smiled with his eyes closed.

.

.

The moment of tension when Gramps and Laxus's eyes met for the first time since Laxus's excommunication was felt by everyone in the vicinity, and Mirajane even offered Laxus a sympathetic smile when the master wasn't watching.

"Good to have you back-"

Laxus knew his old man better than to think that this would be the end of that sentence.

"Did you really think I was going to say something like that?! What were you thinking-" And then Laxus promptly stopped listening, his face contorting into a grimace as Gramps yelled right into his ear.

Good old times.

"Shut up, old man," he said half-heartedly, scratching at the back of his head and looking away, but feeling sort of relieved all the same to see the old man walking.

He thought briefly back to the last conversation he had with Gramps before this one, and even cracked a tiny smile – but that was when Freed and the rest of the Raijinshuu launched themselves at him.

"Hey, cut it out!"

.

.

Of course, kids never listen to their parents when they really should, and that was why Makarov's brats came back to fight – for their parent – and Makarov was truly at a loss for words but not for emotions.

These stupid, reckless children.

And tears gathered in his eyes – tears of pride, not of despair; tears of happiness mixed with the grief of a parent when he sees his child doing something completely self-destructive.

Tears of someone who was loved dearly by their family.

.

.

Makarov, as a genuine grandfather to a boy with his blood running inside, finally let the tears out when Laxus's hand reached out to him and Laxus's looked at Makarov with warm eyes and a smile Makarov hadn't seen in a while and which he had learned to miss.

The first and foremost thought was to get back home – to Fairy Tail – with everyone in tact, but there was a part of Makarov that made him grasp Laxus's hand extra hard and with resolution to not let go of that hand again.

Laxus squeezed back, as if to say – _I'm back, Gramps _– and then everything went white.


End file.
